Google surprised me.
Yesterday I talked about YT Red Original content and where it was at vs Netflix. At the time I did not watch any content including (the trending) Cobra Kai. I expected the content to be meh as I really wasn’t ready to take YT Red OC (original content) serious. Well I will have to admit my flaw in that based on finally checking out Cobra Kai.
If someone would have told me I would have got sucked in like that I wouldn’t have believed them. But once I hit play on the first episode I had to watch the next one. By the end I found myself down to the last episode at 2AM hitting play one last time.
This show really surprised me. They did a good job taking a show and making good with their budget. The writing was solid, the use of their set pieces brilliant, and the character acting and writing was better than some high budget Hollywood movies out there. I was actually surprised from the first episode how awesome the show looked. I honestly expected to see the budget show up in the film quality. Honestly the show really looked good. I just can not speak enough about how surprised I was. But it looks like Google is spending more money on their YT Red OC than I thought. This is more than some of the short films I saw advertised when it first came on-line.
The show premise
The shows picks up 34 years after the first Karate Kid showing the after effects of how that one kick changed their lives forever. For Danny Larusso it turned him from the broke kid from New Jersey into one of the most successful car dealers in the town. He literally rides that kick to success so much that he uses it in all of his car ads. And if that wasn’t enough he passes out Bonsai trees to all of his customers. He has it all, the successful business, the house, cars, beautiful wife and family. He literally is living the perfect life.
Meanwhile on the other side of that kick Johnny Lawrence is broke working odd jobs for money. He lives in a crappy apartment eating fried bologna and ketchup. All he has in this world is his vintage car, his beer, and his old 80’s movies. He is literally stuck in the past trying to deal with the aftermath of losing the karate tournament while the rest of the world passes him by. Him not being able to get past that defeat has left him neglecting everything in his life including his teenage son.
He is neighbors with this nerdy kid who is awkward and constantly gets bullied. One day while eating a slice of pizza in a convenient store parking lot Johnny watches this kid get bullied. He intervenes by defending the kid versus a group of bullies before getting thrown in jail by the cops. This leads to the kid later wanting him to teach him this “karate” so that he can defend himself from the bullies in the future.
Meanwhile on the other side of town you have Larusso living this seemingly perfect life. He is balancing trying to run a successful dealership while being a father to his two teenage children. One being his daughter Samantha who is in high school dealing with trying to fit in as the cool girl in school. Danny struggles trying to be the supportive loving father while trying not to be overbearing.
Fate would bring Danny and Johnny back together after Johnny has his car totaled by a group of teenage girls in a hit and run. Johnny has tried to do everything to avoid Danny only for them to finally meet. They both continue to hold on to the grudge they had for each other back in high school. And this is made evident when Johnny decides to resurrect Cobra Kai to teach kids self defense and confidence. But while he is teaching other kids discipline his own teenage son is getting in all kinds of trouble. He is using drugs, caught up in the wrong crowd stealing electronics, and just showing the signs of a neglected kid whose parents are not in their life.
This show really does a great job diving into the lives of both Danny and Johnny. Not only does it pick up where they left off but it gives a backstory to what led both kids down the path to that faithful kick. People who you saw as villains you were sympathetic to and for once you got the story from the perspective of the antagonist.
Great show that will bridge two generations
Overall this was a really good show. It is funny, moving, and advances the story of the Karate Kid in a brilliant way. I do not know why I took this long to check it out. I will not make that mistake again as I will be all over Youtube waiting for season 2.
Whether you are a kid from the 80’s who loved the Karate Kid movie or you are a millennial you will enjoy this show. This does an excellent job bridging those two generations. It touches on bullying back in the 80’s versus now when kids are having to deal with the cyber bullying. It keeps the plot centered around only the first Karate Kid movie (the most iconic of them all) so you do not have to feel left out if you haven’t seen the sequels. In fact many may consider this the future it deserves continuing the story. They managed to bring back some of main actors from the first Karate Kid movie so that it truly feels like you are getting to see where they are at since the first movie.
Rotten Tomatoes currently has this at 100% and this time I agree with them. If you haven’t given Cobra Kai a chance I highly recommend you do so. “COBRA KAI!!!!!”
